Diane

Panorama | Contemporary World Cinema

Seventy-year-old widow Diane (the marvelous Mary Kay Place) appears selfless in her dedication to others. She visits the sick and feeds the homeless. If she could appease whatever demons are haunting her grown, drug-addicted son, Brian (Jake Lacy), she would do that, too, but in this her efforts seem doomed. The first dramatic feature from critic and documentarian Kent Jones is a deceptively modest character study, yet this intensely absorbing, acutely observed piece cuts to the very quick.